High-level convexity for products of squared Euclidean distance functions

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Micu, Tudor, Pintea, Cornel, Ţurcaş, George C.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Micu, Tudor
Pintea, Cornel
Ţurcaş, George C.
author_facet Micu, Tudor
Pintea, Cornel
Ţurcaş, George C.
contents We study smooth functions on Euclidean space whose Hessian is positive definite outside a bounded set, with emphasis on products of squared distance functions. More precisely, we first prove a simple convexity principle: if the superlevel region $f^{-1}([c,\infty))$ is contained in the Hessian-positive region of $f$, then the sublevel set $\{f\le c\}$ is convex. We apply this to finite products $F_P(x)=\prod_{p\in P}\|x-p\|^2$, proving that their Hessian-positive complements are bounded. For the two-centre product $F_{p,q}(x)=\|x-p\|^2\|x-q\|^2$ in dimension $n\ge2$, we compute the Hessian-positive region and the exact value \[ h_{max}(F_{p,q})=\frac{\|p-q\|^4}{4}. \] This value is sharp for convexity of sublevel sets in the following sense: we prove convexity above it and nonconvexity below it. This also gives the exact convexity and quasiconvexity truncation levels for the two-centre model.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2606_00316
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle High-level convexity for products of squared Euclidean distance functions
Micu, Tudor
Pintea, Cornel
Ţurcaş, George C.
Classical Analysis and ODEs
Differential Geometry
26B25
We study smooth functions on Euclidean space whose Hessian is positive definite outside a bounded set, with emphasis on products of squared distance functions. More precisely, we first prove a simple convexity principle: if the superlevel region $f^{-1}([c,\infty))$ is contained in the Hessian-positive region of $f$, then the sublevel set $\{f\le c\}$ is convex. We apply this to finite products $F_P(x)=\prod_{p\in P}\|x-p\|^2$, proving that their Hessian-positive complements are bounded. For the two-centre product $F_{p,q}(x)=\|x-p\|^2\|x-q\|^2$ in dimension $n\ge2$, we compute the Hessian-positive region and the exact value \[ h_{max}(F_{p,q})=\frac{\|p-q\|^4}{4}. \] This value is sharp for convexity of sublevel sets in the following sense: we prove convexity above it and nonconvexity below it. This also gives the exact convexity and quasiconvexity truncation levels for the two-centre model.
title High-level convexity for products of squared Euclidean distance functions
topic Classical Analysis and ODEs
Differential Geometry
26B25
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.00316